In recent years, taking advantage of their features of being thin and consuming low power, liquid crystal display apparatuses have found widespread use in notebook personal computers, mobile phones, information equipment such as electronic personal organizers, camera-integrated VTRs equipped with a liquid crystal monitor and the like.
As a display mode capable of attaining high contrast and a wide viewing angle, a vertical alignment mode using a vertically aligned liquid crystal layer has received attention. A vertically aligned liquid crystal layer is generally formed using a vertical alignment film and a liquid crystal material negative in dielectric anisotropy.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a liquid crystal display apparatus in which an oblique electric field is generated at the periphery of an opening provided on a counter electrode facing a pixel electrode via a liquid crystal layer, to tilt liquid crystal molecules located around liquid crystal molecules that are in a vertically aligned state inside the opening, to thereby improve the viewing angle characteristic.
Patent Literature 1 described above has a problem that with the disclosed configuration it is difficult to generate oblique electric fields over the entire region of a pixel and as a result liquid crystal molecules may delay in response to the voltage in some portion of the pixel causing a problem of occurrence of an afterimage phenomenon.
To solve the above problem, Patent Literature 2 discloses a liquid crystal display apparatus in which openings are arranged regularly in a pixel electrode or a counter electrode to give a plurality of liquid crystal domains exhibiting radially tilted orientation in a pixel.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a technology in which a plurality of protrusions are provided regularly in a pixel to stabilize the aligned state of liquid crystal domains having radially tilted orientation that emerge around each protrusion as the center. This literature also discloses that the display characteristics can be improved by regulating the alignment of liquid crystal molecules using oblique electric fields generated with openings provided in an electrode, together with alignment regulating force of the protrusions.
In recent years, a liquid crystal display apparatus capable of presenting high-quality display both indoors and outdoors has been proposed (see Patent Literature 4 and Patent Literature 5, for example). Such a liquid crystal display apparatus, called a transflective liquid crystal display apparatus, has a reflection region meant for display in a reflection mode and a transmission region meant for display in a transmission mode, in each pixel.
Patent Literature 6 and Patent Literature 7 disclose a technology in which a reflection electrode having a concave/convex surface is used to attain a reflection display characteristic close to paper white. Such a reflection electrode having a concave/convex surface is obtained by patterning a photosensitive resin layer by photolithography, deforming the photosensitive resin layer by heating and forming a reflection electrode on a concave/convex surface of the resultant resin layer.
Currently commercially available transflective liquid crystal display apparatuses adopt the ECB mode, the TN mode and the like. Patent Literature 3 described above also discloses a configuration applying the vertical alignment mode, not only to transmissive liquid crystal display apparatuses, but also to transflective liquid crystal display apparatuses. Also, Patent Literature 8 discloses a technology in which, in a transflective liquid crystal display apparatus having a vertically aligned liquid crystal layer, the alignment (multi-axis alignment) of liquid crystal molecules is controlled with a depression that is formed on an insulating layer to make the thickness of the liquid crystal layer in a transmission region double that of the liquid crystal layer in a reflection region. This patent literature discloses a configuration in which the depression has a shape of a regular octagon, for example, and a protrusion (convex portion) or a slit (electrode opening) is formed at a position facing the depression via the liquid crystal layer (see FIGS. 4 and 16 of Patent Literature 8, for example).
Patent Literature 9 discloses a technology in which protrusions are formed on a substrate to attain radially tilted orientation of liquid crystal molecules in liquid crystal domains. This literature argues that the radially tilted orientation is stabilized, in a voltage applied state, with an alignment regulating structure provided on one substrate and the effect of the protrusions on the side of the other substrate facing a liquid crystal layer.    Patent Literature 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-301036    Patent Literature 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-47217    Patent Literature 3: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-167253    Patent Literature 4: Japanese Patent Gazette No. 2955277    Patent Literature 5: U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,140    Patent Literature 6: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-75238    Patent Literature 7: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-90426    Patent Literature 8: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-350853    Patent Literature 9: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-315803